A tip from acting for the screenwriter.
While an actor, I was taught a little trick about giving my character a secret.
The trope doesn't have to mean cliché.
Sometimes, a story wants or needs a beat that we have seen many, many times before. That makes it more of a challenge, not less.
Act 3 reveals the structure of your story.
There is an expression about how you can determine your real values based on how you allocate your resources. This is true for screen time as well.
The vital job of Act 1 that not enough people talk about
A huge part of Act 1's job is to get the audience to believe the protagonists's often outlandish choice that drives us into Act 2.
Does the relationship trump the dramatic question?
How could a movie possibly work when the dramatic question is answered at the end of Act 2?
Know what makes your screenplay unique.
The fastest route to selling a script and getting it made is to have a concept that gets people excited before they ever read the screenplay.
Screenplay structure is fractal.
I approach each screenplay structure as a fractal and have found that the most satisfying screen stories follow this pattern.
The last line of a scene is the impact.
The button is the last line of a scene. It is the final moment before we transition out of one scene and into the next.
The first line of the scene is the first image.
The first line of every scene is special. It has a purpose. This purpose is especially important as there is so much friction for the reader in the transition from one scene to another.
A screenwriting tip from copywriting.
Neither screenwriting or copywriting are the end product. They are a step in a process. Both of these forms are a call to action.
Movies are about moments.
Processing any combination of basic principles is far more likely to lead you down the right path as well as get you out of trouble.
Juice up scenes with YES/NO.
So much of the screenwriting I read just kind of moves along. t's all very polite. No bad pages.
But there aren't any great scenes, either.